Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Mayronnes - 23rd May

It was intended that Carcassonne be our longest stay at 17 days because there is so much to do in the wider area including climbing the hills to see the historic hilltop fortresses known as the 5 Sons of Carcassonne. However, Spring is late arriving in Carcassonne, which has meant each day can’t be planned until you get the most up-to-date weather forecast.
Today was supposed to be a non driving day, but the forecast was good so off we went for a manic drive down narrow country roads to the very small town of Mayronnes for a mere 6km bush walk.

Mayronnes greatest if not only feature is a sculpture trail, where you can choose the 1 hour, 2 hour or 6 hour panorama track. In need of a cheese burning workout we went for the 2 hour walk including geocache; there's nothing like a steep climb for 500 metres in the heat with no bush cover.

The path and sculptures are maintained by a volunteer group, with respect from the local farmers and no council involvement, therefore the trail and the car parking are free. Below are some of the sculptures we saw plus other structures:

On our descent we could hear thunder and see dark clouds in the distance, so we hurried back to the car and awaited the safe arrival of our Dutch climbing companions who, Roger noted, don’t speak Maori when for some reason he greeted them with 'Kia ora'. The thunder didn’t eventuate to anything so we went to visit the lovely town of Lagrasse which had a multi-stage geocache to see the old town features such as the Halles, Church, Abbey, bridge etc. Halfway round a few spits of rain fall so we continued; nek minit it bucketed down, including hail, darkness, and thunder and lightning, very very....

Geocache abandoned we hid under a tree until the foliage started leaking and the footbridge near us began to become swamped in water so we headed to someone’s porch. Unfortunately we were at the lowest part of the village so all the water came running down the street straight towards us carrying half of the locals’ garden soil. This is a photo of the mild rain before we committed ourselves to a total drenching as we ran up the cobbled pavements to the car.

The day ended with a long, wet drive home to do yet another load of washing and a quick snack dinner to warm us up. Well quick wasn’t quite the word as it took a while to work out how to turn the grill on.
Cheese Experience (or in this case experiment) No.32 - Ungrilled cheese and chilli on toast.